Things were easier for the old novelists who saw people all of a piece. Speaking generally, their heroes were good through and through, their villains wholly bad.

She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious.

It was not till quite late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say: 'I don't know.'

If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.